Al Gore calls on Barack Obama to ‘act boldly’ on climate change
I went to a very good event on planning issues in the East Midlands on Monday. Hugh Ellis Chief Planner at the Town and Country Planning Association spoke.
His central theme was that climate change is going to be far more severe than we have anticipated (according to work done for the TCPA by Manchester University) and that planners need to think again about its implications for development in their patch. My theme, without any prior conferring, was that that the economy is more bust than anyone thought (confirmed by the Bank of England on Wednesday) and that planners need to think again about the implications of that in terms of their attitudes to rural development.
This article suggests its not just in our domestic back yard that these issues are working themselves through the policy agenda.
It tells us: “The former vice-president and climate champion, Al Gore, has called on Barack Obama to seize the moment and use his re-election victory to push through bold action on climate change. The president has faced rising public pressure in the wake of superstorm Sandy to deliver on his promise to act on global warming. But none of those calling on Obama to act carries the moral authority of Gore, who has devoted his post-political career to building a climate movement. Now, Gore said, it is the president’s turn. He urged Obama to immediately begin pushing for a carbon tax in negotiations over the “fiscal cliff” budget crisis.
The vice-president’s intervention for a carbon tax could give critical support to an idea that has gained currency since the election – at least among Washington thinktanks. The conservative American Enterprise Institute held an all-day seminar on the carbon tax on Tuesday.”